Author Patrick White, 1912 -1990, is revered in Australia. Arguably, not very widely read, but still revered.
Patrick White
A symbol of the emergence of Australia and its break from the ‘mother country’ in the 1960s, White’s receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973 was one of the country’s first high-profile prestigious international awards.
Whilst he had already written a number of best sellers, including Voss, winner of the inaugural Miles Franklin Award in 1957 and Riders in the Chariot (1961- his second Miles Franklin), the Nobel Prize propelled him, albeit reluctantly, into a very different public eye. Just a few months later he was made Australian of the Year, an award usually the exclusive domain of sport!
Although an award for a body of work, in presenting the Nobel Prize to White, the Swedish Academy specifically named The Eye of the Storm, published just weeks before their decision, as the book that confirmed White's designation as a Literature Laureate.
The Eye of the Storm
Cruel, manipulative, destructive, Elizabeth Hunter, the matriarch of her family, lies dying in her rambling Sydney home, surrounded by a much-reduced retinue of two nurses, a cook and long-time friend and legal advisor.
To her sickbed come her two estranged adult children, both in financial need. Sir Basil is a successful actor in the UK down on his luck after terrible reviews for his King Lear. Dorothy, the Princess de Lascabanes, is recently divorced and with title but no settlement.
Weak, vulnerable and at times pathetic, Basil and Dorothy are patsies to their vindictive mother as memories, emotions, love, hate and tragedy are played out against the backdrop of privilege, suspicion, mistrust and dislike as staff and children eye the family fortune.
The Eye of the Storm is an epic novel. But sadly, the film is not.
Film adaptation
Rambling, at times incoherent, the sheer nastiness of Elizabeth Hunter as she lies on her deathbed is completely missing. This is no towering, all-fearful matriarch but a privileged 80 year-old in the last moments of life. And, in spite of flashbacks jumping in and out of the narrative, there remains no sense of fear or this ‘she-who-must-be obeyed’ that is responsible for the dysfunction of the family.
As a result, there is no sense of sympathy for the siblings who have become two weak characters who made a few wrong choices and are now regretting it: there’s no indication as in the novel that it is the mother who totally undermined them from an early age and stunted their emotional independence.
Thus there is no dramatic tension – ghosts of times past may appear and secrets revealed, the young nurse Flora (an excellent performance by the director’s daughter, Alexandra Schepisi) may not have got her hooks into Basil, but, with no emotional depth, who cares?
A deeply disappointing adaptation in what is Australian director Fred Schepisi’s first home produced film in more than 20 years.
Personal rating: 2 stars
The Eye of the Storm
- Directed by Fred Schepisi (Roxanne, Evil Angels)
- Written by Judy Morris (Happy Feet, Babe: Pig in the City)
- Produced by Gregory J Read (Darklovestory, Rocket Compulsion – documentary), Antony Waddington (Spirits of the Carnival – documentary)
- Starring Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech, Pirates of the Caribbean), Charlotte Rampling (Stardust Memories, Swimming Pool), Judy Davis (My Brilliant Career, A Passage to India)
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